404 Media: “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are researching an incredibly wild virtual reality technology that would allow TSA agents to use VR goggles and haptic feedback gloves to allow them to pat down and feel airline passengers at security checkpoints without actually touching them. The agency calls this a “touchless sensor that allows a user to feel an object without touching it.” Information sheets released by DHS and patent applications describe a series of sensors that would map a person or object’s “contours” in real time in order to digitally replicate it within the agent’s virtual reality system. This system would include a “haptic feedback pad” which would be worn on an agent’s hand. This would then allow the agent to inspect a person’s body without physically touching them in order to ‘feel’ weapons or other dangerous objects. A DHS information sheet released last week describes it like this:

“The proposed device is a wearable accessory that features touchless sensors, cameras, and a haptic feedback pad. The touchless sensor system could be enabled through millimeter wave scanning, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), or backscatter X-ray technology. A user fits the device over their hand. When the touchless sensors in the device are within range of the targeted object, the sensors in the pad detect the target object’s contours to produce sensor data. The contour detection data runs through a mapping algorithm to produce a contour map. The contour map is then relayed to the back surface that contacts the user’s hand through haptic feedback to physically simulate a sensation of the virtually detected contours in real time.”